Don’t Miss The New Thing: Following Jesus Into God’s Future – Isaiah 43:18–19 Series

Don’t Miss the New Thing: Following Jesus into God’s Future – Isaiah 43:18–19

Introduction: Standing at the Crossroads of Memory and Movement

Church, we are a people who love our memories. We frame them, revisit them, and sometimes—if we are honest—we live in them. Past victories. Past failures. Past moves of God. Past hurts.

But discipleship is never about camping in yesterday. Discipleship is about following Jesus—and Jesus always walks forwards.

Isaiah 43:18–19 confronts us with a holy tension: honour the past, but don’t live there. Remember what God has done—but don’t miss what God is doing now.

This is a word for the Church in the 21st century. A word for disciples who feel stuck. A word for believers who long for renewal. A word for sinners who need salvation.

Isaiah 43:18–19 (NLT): “But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

Isaiah 43 is spoken to Israel in exile. God’s people are captive in Babylon—discouraged, ashamed, and spiritually disoriented. Their greatest memory is the Exodus—God parting the Red Sea, crushing Pharaoh, redeeming His people.

Yet God says something astonishing: “Forget all that.”

Not because the Exodus was unimportant—but because God is not finished yet.

Theologically, this passage reveals:

God as Redeemer (Isaiah 43:1)

God as Creator (v. 7)

God as the Lord of history and the future

God as the One who specialises in new beginnings

This is not novelty for novelty’s sake. This is redemptive progression—God unfolding His saving purposes, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

1. “Forget all that…” – Letting Go Without Losing Gratitude

The Hebrew word for forget here is ?????? (shakach) — meaning to release from fixation, not to erase from memory.

God is saying:

“Stop measuring My future by your past.”

Discipleship demands holy release—from:

Past sins

Past successes

Past disappointments

Even past revivals

R.T. Kendall: “Yesterday’s anointing will not meet today’s challenges.”

That’s a word for the Church. We honour what God did, but we cannot disciple a new generation with yesterday’s obedience. God is calling us to fresh surrender, not recycled spirituality.

2. “I am about to do something new” – The God Who Initiates

The Hebrew word for new is ?????? (chadash) — meaning fresh, renewed, never-before-experienced in this form.

This is not self-improvement. This is divine intervention.

God does not wait for Israel to improve.

God does not wait for the wilderness to change.

God says, “I am about to do something new.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT): “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

Paul writes to believers living in a morally chaotic Corinth. The Gospel does not renovate the old self—it resurrects the dead one.

Greek Word Study: “New” = ?a???? (kainos) — new in quality, not just time.

Discipleship begins not with behaviour modification, but with new birth.

Tim Keller: “The Gospel is not about turning over a new leaf; it is about receiving a new life.”

That’s why Jesus doesn’t call us to try harder—He calls us to follow Him. Only the risen Christ can do something truly new in a human heart.

3. “Do you not see it?” – Spiritual Perception and Faith

God’s new work is often unrecognised before it is undeniable.

Faith precedes sight.

John 5:39–40 (NLT): “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.”

The religious leaders knew Scripture but missed Christ.

You can be biblically informed and still spiritually blind.

The Train Platform

Standing on the platform, clutching yesterday’s ticket, while today’s train pulls in. Discipleship means recognising when Jesus is moving—and stepping on board.

John Piper: “God is always doing ten thousand things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.”

Discipleship sharpens our spiritual eyesight. Following Jesus trains us to recognise the quiet, powerful movements of God.

4. “A pathway through the wilderness” – Grace in Impossible Places

Wilderness in Scripture is never wasted:

Israel was formed there

Moses was prepared there

Jesus was tested there

God doesn’t remove the wilderness—He redeems it.

John 14:6 (NLT): “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Jesus is the pathway Isaiah foretold.

Max Lucado: “God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way.”

Grace meets us in the wasteland—but discipleship walks us through it, following Jesus step by step.

Gospel Presentation: The New Thing Is a Person